Beckham Did Not Score

By: Laurie | July 29th, 2007

I’ll offer up comments soon on the Chivas Guadalajara game. But for now, since I’ve been gone all week with no internet access, I’m still processing the Chelsea game. In my processing…um…process I wanted to be sure you all saw the following comment from reader Pops94 (and echoed by reader Todd Pounds.)

Other great ESPN moment of the night occurred after the game. The ESPN sports ticker at the bottom of the screen at one point scrolled across “Chelsea 1 Galaxy 0 in Beckham’s debut…Beckham did not score”.

I kid you not. Classic talk down to the masses moment in broadcasting

I missed this because I rarely watch post-game anything. But somehow, after watching the dumbed down, celebrity-obsessed Galaxy-Chelsea game, I’m not surprised.

Although on second thought, I guess you do need to clarify that Beckham didn’t score for Chelsea. That thought makes me giggle. How entertaining would it be if Beckham’s first MLS goal was an own goal?

Some Related Galaxy Posts:

Category: I Wish I Had Written That, International Games and Issues, Just for Fun, Player News

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Todd Pounds

Beyond the ineptitude of the statement by ESPN for a 1-0 game that the Galaxy lost, I think the larger risk here is that ESPN might be playing into a non-soccer fans stereotype by putting "Beckham did not score" next to the Galaxy score each time they play. The casual fan will use this as ammo against the MLS/Beckham in water cooler talk. I hope they will list goals and assists. I expect Beckham to score maybe a goal every 3 or 4 games in the MLS. I also expect a point per game average out of Beckham (goals and assists). Hopefully the line will look more like "Galaxy 3 - Real Salt Lake 2 (Beckham 0 Goals, 2 Assists)" the way that ESPN includes scoring for the NHL.

I seriously think the MLS needs to almost partner with MLS to ensure that the communication makes sense! And for the long term benefit of both the MLS and ESPN... ESPN is obviously very good at advertising and communicating Arena football league scores, but not that skilled with the MLS and soccer communication in general yet. This in spite of the fact that soccer games frequently and propably on average get better ratings than arena football games. I'm rambling now...